Hi, everyone.

My name is Ms. Voyle, and I am really excited to be teaching you your reading lesson today where we are going to be building our comprehension of the story "The Proudest Blue." For this lesson, you need a copy of the 2020 Andersen Press edition of "The Proudest Blue" by Ibtihaj Muhammad.

Pause the video and get your copy of the book now.

Great.

Now I know you have the book with you.

During this lesson, you'll need to be listening and looking carefully, and there will also be some tasks where you need somebody to talk to.

I hope you're feeling excited and ready to learn.

Let's get started.

The learning outcome for today's lesson is, I can use a range of strategies to build my comprehension of "The Proudest Blue." Here are the keywords for today's lesson.

Let's practise saying them.

My turn, your turn.

Identity, comprehension, retrieve, inference, discussion.

Good job, well done.

We will be hearing these words throughout the lesson, and lots of them are linked to the reading skills you will be using to build your comprehension.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

In the first part, we will be revisiting the story of "The Proudest Blue." And in the second part, you will be building your comprehension of the story.

So let's begin with revisiting the story.

What do we know about "The Proudest Blue"? "The Proudest Blue" is a children's picture book which celebrates the importance and beauty of the hijab.

The book is inspired by the author's own life experiences.

The author of "The Proudest Blue" is Ibtihaj Muhammad, alongside S.

K.

Ali, and the illustrator of the book is called Hatem Aly.

The story is told from the perspective of Faiza and written about her big sister, Asiya.

Take a look at the front cover of the book.

Can you remember which character is which in the illustration? The little girl in the boat is Faiza.

She is the little sister in the story, and it is told from her perspective.

We can see that she is looking up towards her big sister, Asiya, who is wearing a blue hijab.

The story is called "The Proudest Blue" because it is about being proud to wear the hijab.

Let's recap the story "The Proudest Blue." Listen carefully as I summarise the key parts of the story to you in my own words.

Faiza and Asiya go to the hijab shop, and Asiya gets her very first hijab, which is bright blue.

Faiza and Asiya go to their first day of school together.

Faiza admires her sister and is in awe of her hijab.

Some of the children at school bully Asiya about her hijab by laughing at her and threatening to take it off her head.

Faiza, Asiya, and their friends don't retaliate, and they walk away instead.

Faiza and Asiya return home together at the end of the day, remaining proud of their Muslim identity and the hijab.

Let's check your understanding.

Which statement best summarises "The Proudest Blue"? A, it tells the story of Asiya getting her very first hijab.

B, it tells the story of how Faiza and Asiya remain proud of their identity and the hijab despite unkindness from others.

Or C, it tells the story of Faiza and Asiya's first day back at school.

Pause the video and select your answer now.

The answer is B, well done.

Now, A and C are true too.

It does tell the story of Asiya getting her very first hijab, and it is about their first day back at school.

However, these are not the best summaries.

B offers us the best summary of "The Proudest Blue" because it also describes the meaning behind the story.

It tells the story of how Faiza and Asiya remain proud of their identity and the hijab despite unkindness from others.

Why are some children unkind to Asiya about her hijab? In places where the majority of people are not Muslim and don't wear hijabs, the hijab may appear as different.

Some people respond to difference in unkind ways because they do not understand it.

This unkindness is not a reflection of the people it is directed towards.

Asiya and Faiza show this through retaining their pride.

They know that the unkind words of others are not a reflection of their worth, value, or beauty, and they hold on to their pride anyway.

They demonstrate how difference is normal and beautiful.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false? "The Proudest Blue" celebrates difference.

Pause the video and answer now.

That is true, well done.

"The Proudest Blue" tells the story of Asiya getting her very first hijab and wearing it on her first day back at school.

And she does feel different to others because most other children aren't wearing a hijab, and some are even unkind to her.

But the story shows us that difference is beautiful and that we don't need to listen to the unkind words of others.

It's now time for your first task, and it's a talk task.

Retell the story with your partner by summarising the key parts.

Use the sentence starters to help you.

Faiza and Asiya go to the hijab shop.

Faiza and Asiya go to their first day of.

Some of the children at school.

Faiza, Asiya, and their friends.

Faiza and Asiya return.

Pause the video and retell the story with your partner now.

Let's go over the story one more time together now.

Faiza and Asiya go to the hijab shop, and Asiya gets her very first hijab, which is bright blue.

Faiza and Asiya go to their first day of school together.

Faiza admires her sister and is in awe of her hijab.

Some of the children at school bully Asiya about her hijab by laughing at her and threatening to take it off her head.

Faiza, Asiya, and their friends don't retaliate, and they walk away instead.

Faiza and Asiya return home together at the end of the day, remaining proud of their Muslim identity and the hijab.

Now, don't worry if your retelling was not in exactly the same words.

I heard lots of you retell the story in slightly different ways.

But as long as you included the key events and important ideas, especially around remaining proud of the Muslim identity, then you did a great job at retelling.

It's time for the second part of our lesson, building comprehension of the story.

Building comprehension means developing our understanding of a text.

We can do this by retrieving key information from the text, making inferences from the text, and having rich discussion about the text.

How do we retrieve key information from the text? If we are retrieving information from the text, it means that it is written in there, and we can use some important skills to help us do this.

Skimming over an extract and scanning for keywords can help us find the information we are looking for.

Sometimes the answer is in that sentence, and sometimes we need to read the sentence before or after.

Skimming means to read quickly.

Scanning means to search for something specific.

Using inference skills can help us to draw greater conclusions about a text, building our understanding of it.

This means that when we infer, we are drawing our own ideas from what is written and not taking the answer specifically from the text.

Inferences are not explicitly written as part of the story.

They are the meaning that we draw from words in the story.

We do this by searching for clues within the text, and when we find those clues, asking ourselves, "What does this clue tell me?" Having rich discussion about a text is beneficial in many ways for building comprehension.

It helps us clarify and understand things.

You might often find yourself having questions about a book and not understanding something after reading it.

Talking to others can help you with this.

It also offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives on the story and analysing the text in greater depth.

When we talk to others about a book, we can try and uncover meaning, and it's helpful to hear other people's perspectives on the story.

Let's check your understanding.

Match the strategy to what it means.

Our comprehension strategies are retrieval of key information, inference, and rich discussion.

How we use the strategies.

Using clues from the text to draw further conclusions, talking to others about the meaning of what we have read, and skimming and scanning to find information from the text.

Pause the video and match these now.

Let's take a look at the answers.

Retrieval of key information involves skimming and scanning to find information from the text.

Inference means using clues from the text to draw further conclusions.

And rich discussion involves talking to others about the meaning of what we have read.

Well done for demonstrating your knowledge of the different comprehension strategies.

I hope you are now feeling warmed up and ready to use them.

It's now time for a task involving some retrieval questions.

Read pages seven and eight of "The Proudest Blue" to retrieve the answers to the following questions.

When a girl in class asks Faiza about Asiya's hijab, what kind of voice does Faiza first use to respond? And when Faiza responds a second time, how does her voice and her answer change? Pause the video, refer back to the book, and find the answers now.

Well done for demonstrating your retrieval strategies.

For A, when a girl in class asks Faiza about Asiya's hijab, what kind of voice does Faiza first use to respond? She first answers by whispering, which means using a soft and quiet voice.

And for B, when Faiza responds a second time, how does her voice and her answer change? She responds more loudly the second time, and she also includes the word "hijab" in her answer the second time.

Well done.

It's time for another task, and this task is going to involve you looking for clues to infer meaning.

Discuss the following questions with your partner to infer meaning from Faiza's words.

A, why do you think Faiza chose to respond to her classmate again in a louder voice? And B, why do you think Faiza changed her answer to include the word "hijab"? So these questions are about the same two pages you just read and found your answers on, but I would like you to discuss the meaning behind Faiza's words and actions on these pages.

Pause the video and discuss these inference questions now.

I loved listening to your partner talk, and you did a great job at trying to uncover the meaning behind why Faiza's volume and words changed.

For A, why do you think Faiza chose to respond to her classmate again in a louder voice? I think she decided she didn't want to be quiet about Asiya's hijab, and she wanted to show her pride.

This is a wonderful answer because it looks at the transition between her whispering the first time and purposefully choosing to use a louder voice the second time.

This could signify her shift to wanting to say it more proudly.

And for B, why do you think Faiza changed her answer to include the word "hijab"? I think she wanted to refer to the hijab by its religious terminology to show pride for her religion.

This is a great inference too.

The first time she answers, she doesn't use the word "hijab," but the second time she answers, she makes sure she includes this word.

This could be seen as an action taken by Faiza to ensure she is referring to her hijab proudly and not shying away from its name, which is an important piece of her religious identity.

It's now time for your final task, where you will be having rich discussion with your partner.

Read pages 9 and 10 and discuss the meaning behind the metaphors and similes the author uses.

Your sentence starters are, "I think the author says wearing a hijab is not like whispering because.

." And, "I think the author draws comparisons between a hijab and the skies because.

." Pause the video now and discuss with your partner what you think the deeper meaning of these are.

Welcome back.

I have to say, I am so impressed with how well you managed to uncover the deeper meaning behind these similes and metaphors.

Let's take a look at some of the answers I heard.

"I think the author says wearing a hijab is not like whispering because nobody should feel like they have to hide or be quiet about an important part of their identity." This is a brilliant answer.

We use whispers when we are trying to hide or be quiet about something, and we learn through this story that Asiya and Faiza want to feel proud of their hijab and not have to be quiet about it.

Let's take a look at another wonderful answer I heard.

"I think the author draws comparisons between a hijab and the skies because the sky never hides and it is a proud part of everyday life, just like the hijab is for some women." This is a wonderful answer.

It views the author's comparison between the hijab and the skies as an attempt to communicate the hijab's normality and beauty, just like the skies above us.

Well done for all of your fantastic hard work building your comprehension of "The Proudest Blue." We've now come to the end of our lesson, so let's go over a summary together.

We use a range of strategies to build comprehension of a text.

Skimming and scanning can help us to retrieve key information.

We can use inference to draw conclusions about the text by searching for clues.

Discussing the text with others improves our understanding and offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives.

"The Proudest Blue" challenges negative ideas around difference and encourages pride of expressing religious identity.

I hope you have enjoyed building your understanding of this story and exploring the deeper meaning behind the author's word choices.

Well done.